Price of Forgiveness
by hourglassthorne
Summary: Set 2 years after Gluhen, Aya and Ken are settled into their new lives as assassins for Kryptonbrand. However, a man with the least reason to seek them out is thrust back into their lives once more. (Chpt 10 up!)
1. Monday

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 1)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R   
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Gluhen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content  **Summary** - Set 2 years after the events at Koua Academy, Aya and Ken are settled into their new lives as assassins for Kryptonbrand. However, a man with the least reason to seek them out is thrust back into their lives once more.   
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

  
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Such a wonderfully bright and sunny morning. Hardly a cloud in the sky and a pleasant cool spring breeze wafting through the air, tugging playfully at the unruly locks of the dark-haired young man as he stepped out of the front doors of the "Kittens' House" carrying an armload of flowers.   
  
_"I ought to be out on the soccer field,"_ some small part of Ken's inner voice sulked as he envisioned serene calm of the dew-covered fields in a nearby park just a few blocks away. Unfortunately, it would be hours before any decent number of fellas would gather there either after classes or on their breaks for a quick scrimage. Not only that, but he was opening with a certain duty-oriented redhead this morning who would probably strike him down with a well aimed death-glare if he even mentioned cutting out early.  
  
_"Maybe I can get Michel to use those big weepy green eyes on Aya. Kid does owe me a favor for taking his morning shift last week, and it's hard to use a shi-ne glare on anybody that cute, so maybe…"_ the Japanese brunette mused to himself as he turned back towards the open door and shifted his gaze on the smaller blonde boy counting the change in the register.  
  
"Oy! Michel! I was wondering—"  
  
"No." A handful of coins rained down into a compartment in the register.  
  
"But Michel—"  
  
"No." A roll of coins was torn open and emptied uncerimoniously into the next compartment.  
  
"You don't even know what I'm gonna ask."  
  
"You wanna go out and play soccer, and you want me to ask Aya if he'll let you go early."  
  
"…" Ken stared at Michel for what seemed like a long moment as the younger man counted out a bundle of paper bills. "But you owe me," he whined, a plaintive catch to his voice.  
  
"Not enough for him to get you out this morning's shift."   
  
Ken froze as the all too familiar commanding voice, and his ears burned slightly as Aya came walking in from the back storeroom, carrying an arrangement of stargazer lilies in a burgandy ceramic vase. "Oh, good morning Aya-kun," he said sheepishly. Then he chuckled and smiled playfully as he shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "Well, ya can't blame me for trying."  
  
Aya turned his gaze out the window as he set the lilies down on a table directly in front of it. He then graced no one in particular with a small smile. "No, I can't."  
  
Ken grinned then turned back to his work, smiling as the first pair of regular morning customers came up the walk and turned into the shoppe. "Good morning!" he said to them brightly as they walked up, admiring the flowers that were already set out at the front. "We've got a sale on lilies this week. Aya-kun's got a few new arrangement he's just set out. Go on in and take a look!"  
  
~ * ~  
  
The wonderful weather seemed to be working its way into the people walking along the city streets, either on their way to work or just starting their errands for the day. Many were taking their time and nearly all of them were relaxed more than they usually would be on a Monday morning. However, the beauty of the day was lost on several people roaming the city at that moment; including one man in particular as he wove his way nimbly through two streams of people who had just emerged from and were waiting to board a rather crowded bus. The tall man ducked himself lower in an effort to lose himself better within the crowd, holding a large wrapped bundle protectively close to his chest. He risked a quick glance backwards and noticed, with a sliver of satisfaction, that the three men who were persuing him had gotten hung up in the masses.  
  
However, they would not be delayed like that for long. At most, he may have bought himself maybe a minute's lead on them, if that.  
  
He picked up the pace and rounded next corner sharply, taking off in a sprint in an effort to put more distance between himself and the people he was running from. There were fewer people to hide among here. That was bad. But there were shoppes here. Maybe he could duck into one and hide till the coast was clear…   
  
Turning his head, he risked another glance back to see if he was still being followed. The men had not yet come around the corner—  
  
"Hey! Watch out!"  
  
Whipping his head about too late, he turned his gaze just in time to see himself run straight into a dark haired, well-tanned Japanese man who had been busy misting the flowers that sat just outside a well-kept flower shoppe. At the last instant, unable to fully stop his forward momentum, the taller man shifted his body so that he ended up colliding with Ken with his left side, saving the bundle in his arms from being caught in the impact. Ken, his instincts kicking in swiftly, shifted his stance as well, dropping the hose and bringing his hands up to catch the fella by the left arm, using his momentum to help bring him to a screeching halt.   
  
"Whoa! Hey there. Where's the fi--?!" Ken's voice cut off as soon as he got a good look at the tall man standing before him, his eyes widening in shock and his jaw very nearly hitting the floor. The man standing before him was dressed in a dark suit, still holding the loosely wrapped bundle in his arms closely as he tried to catch his breath. However, blonde waves of hair, grown out to an entirely too familiar length, were falling haphazardly across his face as a pair of panicked, yet unmistakable, deep green eyes peered out at Ken from behind his bangs.  
  
"Sorry," the man gasped out between breaths. "I wasn't…" He trailed off himself, staring at the stunned young man with a puzzled expression. "You… you look familiar."  
  
"Y… Youji," Ken stammered out incredulously, quite at a loss for anything other than that.  
  
The tall blonde's expression grew even more confused. "'Youji?' Is that… Do you know…" Shaking his head, he suddenly started shifting about nervously, looking behind him once more and stiffening when he saw the three men standing at the street corner, looking around for him. Ken's gaze followed his.  
  
"Youji? What's going—Oof!" Ken suddenly found the wrapped bundle shoved into his arms and the now thoroughly panicked familiar stranger was pushing him urgently back towards the flower shoppe. "Oy! Youji! Stop it! What's going on?!" He suddenly found himself swiftly turned about and staring straight into the anxious man's dark green eyes, barely registering Michel's voice calling out his name in alarm and Aya's voice whispering out Youji's in shock.  
  
"Don't let them find her! Keep. Her. Safe!" Youji commanded with a harsh tone of desperation in his voice. He let his hands linger on the warm bundle for only a moment afterwards before screwing his eyes shut and shoving Ken hard back into the interior of the shoppe. Then, in the next instant, Youji was running back onto the sidewalk, taking a hard left and running swiftly as he could away from them.  
  
"Ken? Who was that?" Michel asked a moment after he caught Ken, barely keeping him from falling backwards on his ass. Ken was still staring in shock at the open door as Aya quickly came to his side as well. But before he could ask his teammate the obvious question, the three of them heard rapid footsteps coming down the sidewalk. Looking up, they saw three rough looking men, one of whom had a scarred face, run quickly past the shoppe, heading in the same direction that Youji had run.  
  
Aya's violet eyes narrowed and without pause, he ran out of the shoppe and after those men.  
  
"Aya! Wait! Don't go off alone! Damnit!" Ken cursed as he got to his feet, with every intention of throwing down the bundle in his arms to the floor in frustration. However, as he got to his feet, he felt the loosely wrapped bundle move and whimper . He froze as he and Michel stared at it. "What the…?"  
  
Michel stared at the bundle wide-eyed, curiosity and a dawning comprehension stirring behind his own green orbs. "Is that what I think it is?" The smaller young man carefully pulled away some of the soft cotton cloth and both of them gasped, a bright smile lighting Michel's face and a stunned one lighting Ken's.  
  
"It's a baby girl!" Michel exclaimed with an awestruck whisper as he beamed at the blearily blinking infant, who started whimpering and fussing softly in his teammate's arms. Eagerly, Michel reached over and took the child from Ken, holding her close to his chest and cooing reassuringly at her. "Awww… poor little thing. I don't think she's even a year old."   
  
As the baby stopped fussing and stared at Michel curiously with her own large emerald eyes, Ken could only stare in shock and wonder at the child himself. "What the hell has Youji gotten himself into?"


	2. Youji

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 2)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R   
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Gluhen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content  **Summary** - Set 2 years after the events at Koua Academy, Aya and Ken are settled into their new lives as assassins for Kryptonbrand. However, a man with the least reason to seek them out is thrust back into their lives once more.  
**Status of fanfic** - ongoing

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_"Faster!  Faster!"_ Youji thought furiously to himself as he ran down the street, narrowly avoiding colliding with random people as he did so.  _"Need to draw them away from her!  Can't let them find her!  Gotta keep her safe!"_  He came to the end of the street and turned another corner, and then another in an effort to confuse his persuers.  Hoping to gain some more distance between himself and the three men who were after him, he turned to run into a narrow alleyway and came to a skidding halt.  With horror he stared at the tall chainlink fence that stood between him and the street on the other side.  Whirling about, he turned to run back onto the street and froze when he saw the the first of his persuers run past the alleyway, not noticing Youji within it.  The second and third of them who followed soon afterwards were not that unobservant.

Turning around as fast as he could, Youji ran and leapt up on several discarded wooden boxes, using them to get a higher leap at the fence.  Frantically, he scaled the fence and was almost to the top when he suddenly felt a bolt of burning agony graze his right arm.  With a sharp cry, he lost his grip on the chain link fence and fell directly into the pile of boxes beneath him.  Splinters and shards of broken wood rained down on his face as he moaned in pain, his limbs attempting to move his battered body in an futile effort to run away from approaching ominous footsteps.

~*~

Aya was running as quickly as he could, managing to catch glimpses of the men pursuing Youji as they turned around this corner and that.  In his mind, so many questions ran around in his head.  

_"What is Youji doing here?  How did he find us?  Who is he running from?  Does he remember anything?"_  These and so many others tangled his thoughts.  He came to a screeching halt as he turned another corner and, growling a curse in Japanese, realized that he had lost sight of the men he had been following.  "Kuso!"  The frustrated red-head jogged down the street, looking around desperately.  "Where the hell did they vanish?!"

He was answered by the sound of a pained cry and a muffled crash coming from a nearby narrow alleyway.  Aya rushed over and cautiously peered into the alley, his violet eyes turning cold and flinty as they saw the three men roughly dragging the still stunned blonde to his feet.  

"Where is the girl?!"  The man with the scarred face growled at Youji, who managed to glare back at him through the haze of dizziness and the scream of aching muscles, a smirk playing at his bloodied lips.

"Girl?  Sorry fellas, don't have a clue what you're talking about."  He was rewarded with a backhanded fist across his cheek.

"Oh 'that' girl," Youji muttered as if some light blinked on with the blow that rattled his teeth.  "Sorry boys, but she's spoken for.  You'll have to find another cradle to rob."  A meaty hand attached itself to the taller man's neck and shoved him up against the fence as the silenced barrel of a pistol was pressed into his stomach.  

"One more time… Where is the girl?!"

Youji's dark emerald eyes blazed pure unadulterated hatred and fatalistic determination at them.  "Fuck you!" he snarled himself through his strangled throat. The man holding gun was bringing it back up to strike him in the head with it when out of nowhere a steel pipe flew out and struck his would-be attacker sharply across the back of his skull.   

The injured blonde crumpled to the unforgiving ground as he was released, gasping and choking.  The other two tried to draw their weapons on Aya, but the enraged red-head was too quick for them.  The steel pipe definitely wasn't his katana, but it was damned effective in a pinch.  The remaining bruisers didn't have a chance.  All they managed to see was a blur of red and then they were out, bruised, broken, beaten, and bloodied.  But not dead, however.  And that fact moved Aya even quicker to Youji's side.

"Youji?  Get up!  We have to go"  Aya knelt down to get the blonde's arm over his shoulder to help him to his feet.

Youji winced as injured muscles protested the movement, though it was obvious from the expression in his eyes that his mind was elsewhere.  "Kaiya?  The girl?  Is she safe?" he whispered as he finally managed to stand upright, albeit a might unsteadily.

Aya blinked and stared at Youji incredulously.  _"A girl?!"_ he thought with an internal exhasperated sigh as he forced the two of them to begin moving out of the alleyway and onto the main sidewalk.  His amythest eyes narrowed as he shook his head with a grimace.  _"Typical!  The great Youji Kudou getting the shit beat out of him once again over a woman.  Judging by those men, he probably made out with the wife or girlfriend of some drug dealer or crime lord and now has a price on his head.  Baka!  And I thought Ken said that he was happily married now!" _ His frustrated thoughts remained unvoiced, though he glared at the staggering blonde for a moment as the turned around a corner.  "Just keep moving, Kudou," he said, keeping his voice even and crisp.

Youji lifted his head a bit, turing his eyes to Aya as the moved, the redhead very nearly dragging the blonde down the street in a rush.  "'Kudou'," he murmured, as if tasting the name for the first time on his tongue.  "Is that my family name?  Do you know who I am?"

He bit back another curse as he focused his eyes on the next corner they needed to turn.  _"Damnit!  He still doesn't remember!"_ Aya thought as he tried to ignore Youji's persistant emerad gaze.  _"But if he doesn't remember, how the hell did he find us here?  And what the hell is he doing in England for that matter?  Argh!  He's not here five minutes and the bastard's already giving me a headache!"_  He pulled on Youji to move faster.  "Come on.  Those men will wake up eventually, and we need to get you to safety."

Shaking his head as if to clear the cobwebs tangling his mind, Youji turned his attention back to keeping his feet from tripping out from under him.  "The name fits, I think.  It sounds right anyways." he muttered.  He stumbled and bit back a cry of pain as Aya forced him to turn suddenly and he felt his right ankle give way underneath him.  "Shit!  I think I sprained it."  

"Keep moving, we're almost there."  Aya commanded, though he did shift a bit to allow Youji to lean against him more.  He led them down an alleyway that eventually led to the rear delivery entrance to the "Kitten's House".  Pulling a key from his pocket with his free hand, Aya unlocked the door and brought them both inside, locking it securely again afterwards.  Both men were breathing hard, though Youji certainly looked worse for wear.  Only when he had seated the injured blonde in a nearby chair did Aya notice the scent of blood and deepening dark stain seeping through a jagged cut in the sleeve of Youji's jacket.  "Take off your jacket, we need to take care of that wound.  Ken!  Michel!"  Aya yelled to the front as he turned to get the first aid kit.  "Close the shop and get back here now!"  

Aya nearly dropped the kit, however, when he was answered by a piercing wail. _ "What the hell?!"_  He turned to glare at the source of the noise as it was carried in by Michel's arms, the younger man trying desperately to soothe the upset infant as Ken followed afterwards, wincing at the noise himself. 

"Jeeze Aya!  Now look what you've done!" Ken admonished.  

"What I've done?!  What the hell is that thing doing in here?!"

Michel frowned at Aya.  "It's not a 'thing'.  It's a baby.  And can you please stop yelling?  You're upsetting her."

"Kaiya."

Aya, Michel, and Ken all turned to stare at the bloodied, limping blonde as he hobbled over unsteadily.  His deep green eyes, however, were gazing softly with undisguised relief and love at the infant girl, who had stopped crying suddenly and turned to look at Youji intently.  Youji smiled gently and reached out to take her from Michel.  "Shh shh shhh… It's ok Kaiya… I'm here."  The baby broke out into a huge smile and began struggling to free herself of Michel's grasp and held out her open arms to Youji, who scooped her up and cradled her close to his chest, despite the pain in his wounded arm and supporting his weight on his uninjured leg.  "It's ok, princess.  I've got ya.  Papa's here.  Papa's here."

Ken and Aya stared at Youji in absolute stunned silence as Michel, seeing his teammates' shocked stupor, sighed and took matters into his own hands.  "Mister?  You really ought to sit down now," he said to Youji as he picked up Aya's forgotten medical kit from the floor.  "We need to get you bandaged up.  Don't want to go bleeding all over your baby girl now, do you?"  He smiled winsomely as he led Youji back to the chair.  "Kaiya… That's a pretty name.  How old is she?…" Michel's voice trailed off into idle chatter as he tended to the relieved father's wounds.  

The other two watched, each trying to wrap their minds around the impossibility of the scene before them.

"Youji… A father…?"  Ken broke their silence first.

"He said her name was Kaiya." Aya added, the thoughts of what was spoken earlier when he found Youji beginning to click into place.  "I think the men who were after Youji were really looking for her." he whispered to Ken in a hushed tone, studying his former teammate with curiosity.  "He still doesn't remember who we are, though, Ken.  Let's try not to tell him too much about the past.  At least, not until we figure out exactly why he is here and who he is running from."

  
Ken nodded in agreement.  "I'll call Mihirogi.  He may not remember us, but he's still our friend.  She'll be able to find some answers."  He pulled his cell phone from his apron pocket and walked out of the back room and back into the shoppe as he dialed while Aya stood back and watched silently over Youji, memories of the past and images of the present colliding with one another in a tangled heap that he tried to make sense of.


	3. Innocence

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 3)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R (see warnings)  
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Gluhen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content 

**Notes:  **In Japanese, the name "Kaiya" means "Forgiveness."  
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

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Aya was watching Youji silently, leaning against the workbench as he studied the tall blonde as he seated the infant girl on his lap, supported by his good arm, while Michel worked on cleaning and dressing the wounded one.  It was so bizarre seeing him like this.  Not wounded of course (that was all too familiar a scene), but with the child that he called his own.  Of the four of them from Weiss, the absolute connoisseur of hedonism and womanizing was the very last he expected to take up fatherhood, aside from himself, of course.  Ken, hell even Omi seemed more likely to be the ones to start families if they could ever break out of the vicious cycle of violence and death that was their very way of life.  

_"But… Youji did break the cycle,"_ Aya mused as he watched his former teammate cradle his daughter protectively as best he could with his free arm.  _"He lost all his memories.  For all intents and purposes, Youji Kudou, Balinese of Weiss, died that awful night along with Sena and Epitaph."_  Aya brought up his right hand to rest his chin on, propping the elbow of that particular arm in the left hand.  "_So am I looking at a bit of the man that Youji would have been, had he never lost the first Asuka?  Never joined Weiss?  Never had the blood of countless men and women stain and torment his soul?"_

Even though preoccupied for the most part by the baby on his lap and the boy mending his arm, Youji could feel the steady gaze of Aya's amythest eyes upon him.  When Michel had stepped away for a moment to find a clean washcloth and something he could use to splint Youji's sprained ankle, he turned his head to return his observer's gaze.  He opened his mouth as if to speak, but found that words were suddenly hard to come by with this crimson-haired stranger.  

Or was he a stranger?  There was something very familiar about this man who saved his life just now.  Youji frowned and turned away slightly as a small voice in the back of his head, barely audible, nagged at him.  He pulled Kaiya into a closer embrace as she yawned and curled up towards him.  "Thank… Thank you for helping me out there," he finally managed to say, his voice quiet and somewhat unsure of itself.  "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't stepped in when you did."

Aya started a bit when Youji had turned his eyes towards him, suddenly uncomfortable with the fact that he had allowed himself to get so tangled up in his internal thoughts that he'd allowed himself to get caught by the subject he was observing.  "Hn," was all he trusted himself to say in response, turning his own head slightly so as not to meet the forest green gaze. 

That repsonse, however, seemed to pique Youji's curiosity even more, stirring up more feelings of familiarity between himself and the redhead.  "Before, you called me 'Kudou'.  Is that my family name?  Do we know each other?  Do you know who I am?"

Aya's jaw tightened a bit, a flicker of some unfamiliar emotion flitting across his eyes.  He turned to face Youji to respond to his questions when his voice died at his lips at what he saw before him.  The face was the same as he had always remembered it.  The same familiar lines and shadows that he'd worked side by side with for so many years before hell broke loose and divided them two years ago.  However, the eyes were different.  Within the all too familiar emerald gaze Aya saw loss and pain, clearly burned into the soul of this man.  But added to the commonplace emotions writ upon those orbs was something else… 

Innocence.

Not the illusion of innocence, such as what Michel (and Omi once upon a time) easily wore on a day-to-day basis in their lives outside their missions, but the type of innocence that comes from never having taken the life of another human being.  To have never been stained by the blood of others.  To have never watched as the spark of life died in the eyes of a soul condemned for oblivion at your own hands.  To have never been the reaper for the guilty unrepentant and those whose only misfortune was to blindly stand between yourself and the walking dead…

Or, at least, an innocence borne of not remembering any of it at all.

Such was the imperfect gift of amnesia.  And in that instance Aya envied Youji with all his tortured heart and tainted soul.  However, that also made it all the more difficult to broach the older man's questions.  He frowned a bit, though he managed to keep his voice even.  "We worked together a couple of years back," Aya started tenatively.  "Yes, your name is Youji Kudou, and we do know each other.  In Japan, we worked together for several years at a floral shoppe with a couple of others."

Youji blinked at Aya, a blank confusion lighting his face.  "So… I was… a florist?" he asked incredulously.

Aya nodded silently, silently thanking whatever spirits were watching over him that day when both Michel came back bearing supplies to finish mending his impromptu patient and Ken wandered in and motioned for the redhead to join him out of the backroom and into the shoppe.  "What does Mihirogi say?" Aya asked Ken once they were safely out of hearing range of the back room.

"It's strange," Ken started out as he leaned back against the front counter.  "When I called her, practically the first words out of her mouth was, 'Did Kudou show up?' and 'Is his daughter with him?'.  When I told her that he did and she was, she sounded almost relieved.  Mihirogi says to close up shop here and for us to bring him to the castle immediately.  And not to worry about any supplies for the child, that it's being handled…"

Violet eyes narrowed dangerously.  "Did she say anything about why he's here or who's chasing after him?"  The dark expression on Aya's face deepened when Ken shook his head in the negative, his own expression very much not pleased with the lack of information.

"She knows something.  But she wasn't willing to say anything about it over the phone.  We need to take the roundabout way to the castle to make sure we're not followed.  You'll have to take Youji in your car, and I'll take Michel on my motorcycle."

Aya nodded, though he was not pleased at the prospect of sharing a vehicle with a curious amnesiatic Youji for the long trip to the castle.  He then proceeded to tell Ken about how much he revealed to Youji about their past, which was just the barest amount of truth about their day jobs, and proceeded to warn him again about revealing anything about their nighttime activities.  The former soccer player nodded, not liking the idea of keeping secrets from someone who he once trusted his life with, but understanding the necessity of it all.  Soon the both returned to the back room.

"It's not safe for you to stay here in the city, not with those men looking for you," Aya told Youji as Ken took Michel off to one side to explain all that was going on.  Youji, testing the weight he could place on his injured ankle while holding his now sleeping daughter, looked at Aya, a pained expression on his face.  

"I'm sorry.  I brought this trouble to you.  You've done more than enough to help us, but I can't ask any more from you.  Whoever's after me and my girl… I don't want them after you too." Youji's expression grew even more grief-stricken as he bowed his head slightly to gaze at Kaiya face.  "These people who are after us… They are ruthless and deadly.  I don't want anyone else hurt because of us." 

Amythest eyes gazed at the tall blonde steadily, but it was Ken's voice that spoke up.  "Youji-kun.  You're our friend, even if you don't remember Aya and me.  And that means that you don't have a choice in the matter.  We're helping you whether you like it or not.  Besides, how far are you gonna get on that bum leg and with a baby to worry about?  You can't protect her in your condition.  You and Kaiya ride with Aya.  Michel and I will follow you as soon as we close up shop here.  Now get out of here."  

Youji looked for a moment like he was going to argue and protest some more, but the expression faded quickly and was replaced with one of weariness and gratitude as he bowed his head with a tired smile.  "Thank you."  He raised his head to look at Ken and Aya curiously.  "I'm sorry to be asking you this.  I feel silly for having to do so, but what are your names?"

Aya and Ken shared a glance and some unreadable emotion before sighing in unison.  Ken spoke up first, smiling warmly at his friend.  "I'm Ken Hidaka, and this is--"

"Aya.  Aya Fujimiya."

Youji closed his eyes.  "Aya… Aya-kun… Ken-kun… Ken… Ken… Aya…"  he murmured, almost like a mantra.  Then his eyes snapped open and he stared at the two of them in turn, realization written all over his face.  "I remember!"  he exclaimed as Aya and Ken glanced at each other nervously.  Then the blonde's face brightened into a heart-stopping, nearly forgotten expression of unvoiced michevious laughter.  He pointed at the two of them in turn.  "You're KenKen!  And you're Ayan!  I remember!"  Youji laughed, a welcome sound to all of their ears as they released breaths that they hadn't realized that they were holding.  "I remember you hated those nicknames!  But I gave them to you all the same!"

Ken laughed as well, though he smirked at Youji micheviously himself.  "Ahhh… but we weren't the only ones with nicknames, Yotan.  Now let's get going here.  We can tease each other about this later."  He then walked with Michel to help him close out the register and bring the plants in from outside.

Aya smiled at the rememberance of the annoying, yet fond nicknames.  It was a pleasant distraction to the immediate thoughts troubling his mind.  He took his apron off and brought out the keys to his car.  "Come on.  Let's get you two someplace safe."  


	4. Avoidance

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 4)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R (see warnings)  
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Gluhen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content 

**Notes:**  
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

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As the two men and the baby made their way out of the Kittens' House, Youji seemed to have turned into paranoia personified, especially with his daughter stirring in his arms, still asleep.  Thankfully Aya's car, a titanium silver BMW Z4 Roadster, was parked safely tucked away in that back alley along with Ken's motorcycle, a white and blue Suzuki Hayabusa.  Even through his nervousness at being out in the open again, the blonde had to stop and stare at the vehicles before him before turning a curious eye to Aya as he unlocked the doors.

"Hmmm… If you get paid enough to afford toys like these just by being florists, it's no wonder I was working as one back in Japan."  

Aya stiffened for a second, a movement that would have been missed by anyone who wasn't as keyed to suspicious actions as Youji was at that point in time.  He studied the redhead warily as Aya quickly resumed unlocking the door and motioned for the other man to get in.  "Get in the car, Kudou," he ordered curtly, a tone that Youji found both heart-achingly familiar and gratingly aggravating.  However, being in no real position to argue any point with him on it, Youji silently went to the opposite side and got in.

Holding Kaiya closely to him, Youji gazed uneasily out the tinted windows as they drove out of the alley and onto the main avenue in front of the floral shoppe.  He slunk as far down into the seat as was humanly possible with a sleeping infant as Aya worked his way through the maze of London side streets.  A tense, uncomfortable silence hung between the two of them until finally they had moved beyond the city limits and were driving at a descent clip through the surrounding countryside. It was then, and only then, that the tensed blonde finally relaxed enough to sit back comfortably in his seat, cradling Kaiya close as she stirred just enough to place her thumb in her mouth and go back to sleep.  

"Aya?"  

"Hn?"

Youji stared out at the open road before them, looking at nothing in particular.  "What happened to me?"

Aya stole a quick glance at his passengers from the corner of his eyes.  "What do you mean?"  he asked neutrally as a feeling a dread started to settle in the pit of his stomach.

The blonde turned his own emerald gaze to Aya, but the redhead had already returned his focus to the road.  Youji frowned.  "Two years ago there was some sort of explosion.  I woke up to find myself in a hospital suffering some pretty nasty wounds and having no memory of anything beyond my first name.  The doctors and nurses told me they found me within the rubble of some building that had suffered some terrorist attack, and that I was the only survivor, but they didn't find any sort of identification on me whatsoever.

"You said that we used to work together for several years, and I'm assuming that includes Ken as well.  So you must know more about me, about my past, about what caused me to lose my memory."

The muscles in Aya's jaw tightened as he remained silent for a long while.  After quite a few kilometers had passed and he turned onto a road that began to cut into an old forest, Youji finally lost his patience with him.  "Answer me, damnit!" he cursed softly, trying to keep his voice calm and even so as not to wake Kaiya.  "You have to know something!  Ken said that we were… we ARE friends.  So you have to know more about me than just my family name.  I want to know who I am."

Aya tried to keep his face neutral, tried to hide the pain that twisted at him from within at the memories he had of Youji's former life and his subsequent "death".  When keeping his face blank proved to be too much for his warring emotions to allow him to accomplish, however, he settled for narrowing his amythest eyes and glaring at the blonde.  "Keep it down, Kudou, or you'll wake that damned noisemaker up."

"Damned noisemaker?!"  Youji's eyes widened, then narrowed into their own scathing emerald glare.  "You fucking prick!" he snarled venomously in a barely contained whisper.  "How dare you?!  You son of a bitch!  First chance I get I'm beating the shit out of you for that!  I don't care if you want to be some damned antisocial secretive fuck with avoidance issues with me, but don't you dare insult Kaiya in my presence again!"  The baby in question then stirred and whimpered in Youji's arms, sensing her father's foul mood.  Distracted by the child, he fussed over her, rocking her gently in his arms and humming a soothing melody to settle her back to sleep.  

Thankfully for Aya, by the time that Youji had gotten his daughter settled once more, they were pulling through the massive wrought iron gates and were making their way up the driveway leading to a castle-like manor tucked away deep within the forest.   As he drove up to the main entrance, Aya noticed that there were two people waiting for them at the front door.  One of them was Mihirogi, as prim and polished as she always looked. The other, however, was…

"Mamoru!"  Much to Aya's continuing surprise, it was Youji who addressed the young man waiting for them with relief and welcome as soon as he opened the door and began to step out.  Omi offered the taller older man a warm smile as he moved forward to greet him. 

"Youji-kun!  I'm so glad to see you're both ok.  What happened?  You and Kaiya were supposed to follow me back to my home right after the funeral.  And then you vanish and no one knows where you've gone."

Youji shook his head.  "I'm sorry Mamoru, but can we talk after I've set Kaiya down.  She's really tired and I need both hands free to wring someone's neck later."  He shot a chilly glare back at Aya, who had stepped out of his car and was gazing at Omi intently.  

"Come right this way, then," Mihirogi said as she came forward to place herself between Aya and Youji.  "We've got a pair of rooms set prepared upstairs for you two, including one with a crib for your daughter."

"I'd rather that Kaiya slept in the same room as myself, if that's not too much trouble," Youji said as he allowed himself to be led away by the dark-haired woman.  They continued conversing as they stepped into the manor.

Once Youji and his daughter were safely out of sight, Aya approached Omi and broke the silence between them.  "Omi… What the hell is going on?  Why is Youji here?  Why are you here for that matter?  Who is after him and his daughter?"  He glared at the smaller young man, though it seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever as Omi's face grew grim and serious and not a little anguished.

"Aya-kun," he started, not quite meeting his friend's intense violet gaze. "Something bad has happened to Youji back in Japan…  I will give you all the answers I can, but we need to wait for Ken to arrive."  Omi took a deep breath, as if to settle ragged nerves that obviously were rubbed raw from jet lag on top of everything else that he wasn't revealing at the moment.  He then stared up at Aya with pleading in his weary pained eyes.  "Please, Aya-kun, I know that Youji is probably bothering you with questions about his past, and you don't want him to find out about anything… Hell, I haven't even told him that we were friends before his amnesia either, but please don't upset him anymore, especially about his daughter.  You don't know what he's been through."

Something in the sound of Omi's voice made Aya feel as if his heart had plummeted to the pit of his stomach.  He nodded solemnly.  "We'll wait for Ken then… And I'll keep my distance from Youji till he cools down some." 

The younger man nodded and turned to walk with Aya back into the manor.  "Aya-kun?"

"Hn?"

"It's really good to see you again."

"Likewise, chibi."


	5. Name?

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 5)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R (see warnings)  
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Gluhen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content 

**Notes:  **"Agnes" is my own character, as I have no clue as to whether or not the Kryptonbrand castle has a housekeeper or not, though considering how big it is and such, it probably ought to have its own staff.  
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

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All of Youji's instincts had already been on edge from the moment he set foot on British soil.  The moment he ran into Ken and Aya, however, those instincts started screaming at him in a fever pitch, worsening as the sight of the castle Aya was taking them to came into view.  Thank God that Mamoru was there waiting for them when they drove up.  If he hadn't, Youji mused that he would have probably handed Kaiya off to the first person he saw just so that he could deck the venom-tongued redhead the moment he stepped out of the car.

As Mihirogi led him upstairs, the tall blonde man continued to fume internally as he limped. _"The nerve of that prick!"  _his mind growled as his flashing green eyes reflected his anger.  _"If Aya didn't want to talk about my past, the bastard ought to have just told me flat out instead of taking a swipe at Kaiya!"_  The little girl in question stirred again in response to her father's aggrevation, her little petite lips pulling downward into a familiar frown that would herald the beginning of a great deal of crying.  Youji quickly swallowed down his anger ad worked at soothing the small child who now seemed bound and determined to wake up.  When she opened her large bright eyes, a beautiful echo of her father's own emerald gaze, she stared at him for a long moment before scrunching up her face to cry once more, this time with a very distinct catch to it.

Youji frowned as he berated himself.  "God!  I was so busy running today that I didn't get a chance to pick up any food or formula for Kaiya," he said dejectedly as he watched the infant begin to suck her thumb furiously between sobs.

Mihirogi came to a stop and opened the door in front of her.  "Don't worry.  When our head housekeeper Agnes found out that we were going to be having a baby stay with us for awhile, she went out early this morning and stocked up on anything you might need for your daughter.  She adores children, so if you need anything for Kaiya, all you have to do is ask."  As they stepped into the room, a small plump grandmotherly woman with silver speckled curls was found within, placing pastel blanket into what was obviously a well-cared for antique wooden crib.

"Ah!  I thought I heard a hungry baby coming this way,"  the older woman smiled warmly at them as she turned about.  She walked over to where a bottle warmer had been set up atop a dresser and pulled the bottle of formula from it, chuckling as Kaiya, seeing the bottle, started smiling and reaching eagerly for it.

"Ba!  Ba!"  the little girl said distinctly, bringing smiles to everyone in the room.

Agnes then clucked her tongue as she noticed Youji's splinted ankle and the bloody tear in his jacket.  Holding the bottle out of reach, she made it perfectly clear that she wasn't going to give it to him until he took a seat in the living room chair and propped up his injured leg on the ottoman before it.  "Here," she said as she finally relinquished the bottle to Youji.  "Looks like one of the boys did a good job patching you up, but we can't have you running around with bloody clothes, especially around the baby.  You look to be about Chloe's size, so I'll bring some clothes from his wardrobe for you to borrow, and don't you start complaining or refusing my kindness now.  I won't stand for it."

The protest Youji had been about to make died on his lips, and with a sigh he smiled back wearily at her as he leaned back into the comfortable leather chair and gave Kaiya the bottle, which she latched onto fiercely.  "Thank you very much, Ms…"

"Agnes is fine, Mr. Kudou.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go fetch those clothes for you and bring over the rest of the linens for your bed."  The small woman then bustled her way out of the room, leaving the seated blonde with a puzzled expression on his face as he turned to Mihirogi.

"Excuse me… But how did she know that my family name was Kudou?  I didn't even find that out till only less than an hour ago."  Youji's confusion and paranoia became even greater, however, as he finally began noticing details that his anger at Aya had blinded him to earlier. "For that matter, how did you know that I would be coming here with my daughter?  I know Ken must have called ahead from the flower shoppe, but you said that Agnes had been getting ready for our arrival since early this morning."

The slender polished woman simply adjusted her glasses and waved off Youji's sudden air of suspicion.  "It's quite simple.  Your friend Mamoru Takatori told us.  He alerted us of your impending arrival in England once he learned where you were headed, and that you and your daughter would most likely be needing our protection once you got here.  I must say, though, it was quite a stroke of luck that you ended up running into Aya, Ken, and Michel over at the Kittens' House and saved us the trouble of tracking you down."

Youji was stunned into silence.  Mamoru, who had been his closest friend since he ran into the young man at a charity dinner for the hospital about six months after he woke up without his memory, knew his (until recently) forgotten family name?  If that was the case, then he must have known Youji before he lost his memory, just like Aya and Ken.  But why?  If he knew, then why didn't he tell him?  Why was everyone working so hard to keep his past a secret to him?  

The shaken man turned his eyes to study Mihirogi cautiously.  "Who are you?  There's no way that Aya, Ken, or Michel can simply be florists.  And what is Mamoru's connection to all of this?  What is going on?"

Mihirogi shook her head.  "Your friends will have to be the ones to answer most of your questions.  However, I can assure you that right now you are in the safest place for your daughter and yourself.  Now please relax.  Take care of Kaiya and yourself.   I'll have Agnes bring up something for you to eat, and I'm sure Mamoru and the others will come by shortly to see how you are doing."

Youji shook his head at that, however.  "No… I don't want to see any of them right now.  Everything is so mixed up.  I just want to be alone with my daughter."

The woman before him nodded.  "I understand.  I'll relay that to the others.  Please do try to get some rest.  I'll have Agnes bring some food shortly for you."  Mihirogi then turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her quietly, leaving Youji gazing sadly at his hungrily feeding daughter, cradling close to him potentially the last person in the world that he could be absolutely sure of.


	6. Hypocrite

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 6)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R (see warnings)  
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Gluhen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content 

**Notes:  **text in italics and centered are flashbacks;  I don't remember if "Ikeda" was really Asuka's family name in Gluhen, however I've made it so here, and when Youji married Asuka, he took on her name since he couldn't remember his own;    
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

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"You bastard!"  Omi fell backwards with a startled cry, narrowly dodging Ken's flying punch right before Aya and Michel were able to grab a hold of their very angry teammate and keep him from pummeling the now wide-eyed young man into oblivion.  Just a short while earlier, Ken had practically leapt off the bike as it was still moving and had tackled Omi in a great bear hug, absolutely thrilled to see the young man again after so long.

_~flashback~_

_"Ken-kun!  Lemme go!  I can't breathe!"  Omi gasped with a smile.  Aya and Michel smiled as the younger struggled to escape the soccer player's grasp._

_Finally releasing the smaller man, Ken threw his arm over his old friend's shoulder and smiled broadly, dark brown eyes flashing merrily.  "Omitchi!  It's been too long!  I've missed seeing your genki little face.  If it wasn't for Michel here, I'd have gone into chibi-withdrawal a long time ago."_

_The fore-mentioned 'chibi' stuck his tongue out at Ken and offered his hand to Omi.  "I'm Michel Conrad!  Nice to meet you."_

_"Omi Tsukiyono.  Likewise."  They shook hands and Omi beamed._

_"So what brings you here, Omitchi?"  Ken came up behind the older chibi and draped his arm about the other's shoulder once again.  "Lemme guess!  You finally got tired of being the head of a multibillion dollar corporation-slash-shadow organization and decided that your true calling is to fill the world with flowers, love, and happy fan-girls!"  Ken blinked, surprised with himself for a moment, then he laughed.  "What the hell am I saying?  That's something Youji would say.  Hey!  Where is Youji?  Did he already go inside?  We need to celebrate the four of us back together again… Oi?  Omi?  What's wrong?"_

_Omi's happy expression had fallen away at the mention of elder Weiss's name.  Aya's small smile also faded and his face took on a look of dead seriousness once more.   "Youji's already inside," Aya said neutrally. "Mihirogi took him to his room so that he could put Kaiya down.  He's also a bit upset with me."_

_"Why?  What happened?"_

_"I called his daughter a 'damned noisemaker'."_

_"AYA!  How could you say such a thing?!  Not even taking into account how stressed he was with what he went through this morning, you should have known better than to do that!  Hell!  If that cute little angel was my baby girl, I'd throttle you to within an inch of your life for insulting her like that!"  
  
_

_"He was asking too many questions about his past.  It was the surest, quickest way I could think of to distract him."_

_Ken was silent for a moment after that.  Then Omi spoke up._

_"Also," he started tentatively, his voice sounding a little guilty for some reason.  "Youji doesn't know that we were friends before he lost his memory."_

_Shrugging, Ken smiled at Omi reassuringly.  "Well that's no big deal.  You said so yourself, '…he lost his memory.'  So of course he doesn't remember who we are and  that we all were friends."_

_The younger man shook his head, though.  "You don't understand Ken-kun.  He doesn't remember me as his friend Omi Tsukiyono, but he does know me as his friend Mamoru Takatori."_

_The dark-haired Japanese man stared at the younger blonde, a blank expression on his face.  "His friend?  But I thought…You told me…"  The words slipped over numb lips as he bowed his head slightly, his untamed bangs falling forward to hide his eyes.  As he stood there in silence for a long moment, however, the muscles of his jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth, his dark eyes flashing furiously as he lunged for Omi with a growl._

_~end flashback~_

"You little punk!" Ken snarled at Omi as he struggled against Michel's and Aya's hold.  "When I came to you to find out where Youji was you ordered me, as Persia no less, to not get too close!  You told me not to expect much, that he was married and had another life and that he didn't need any reminders of the past bringing back darkness into his new life!  And I agreed with you, you son of a bitch!  Especially after I saw how happy he was with Asuka and everything else, I knew you were right!  He didn't remember the last mission, or Weiss, or anyone!  The only thing that even connected him to us was the fact that he was still holding onto Aya's sword, and he didn't even know why he was holding onto it in the first place!"  

The man stopped struggling, but his whole body expression was seething as he glared at Omi, who was staring at him with hurt cornflower blue eyes.  "You told me to give up on him, that he needed to be left alone to be happy.  And now here you tell me that you broke your own rule and became friends with him behind our backs?!  Do you have any fucking idea how much I've missed Youji?" Ken's eyes glistened with unshed tears, squeezing his eyes shut to prevent them from falling.  "How much Aya and I have both missed him?!  I would have given anything to have been able to be friends with him again, even if he didn't remember our past." 

With his last words, the fight in Ken's temper drifted away, the pain of the revealed hypocrisy of one of his oldest friends left behind in its wake and clearly writ in his face.  Sensing that Ken wasn't going to pose a physical danger to Omi anymore, Aya and Michel released him, letting him shrug away from their grasp and stalked straight past Omi without paying him another glance.

Aya watched as his partner strode through the open front door and slammed it shut behind him as Michel rushed over to help Omi up to his feet.  The older of the two boys stood up slowly, his eyes downcast and his expression sorrowful.  The taller redhead came up to him, and Omi looked up, meeting his sky blue gaze with amythest ones.  "Come on," was all that Aya said before heading to the front doors.  

Nodding, Omi and Michel followed, walking side by side, with the young Irishman looking curiously from the redhead to the blonde beside him.  "When the four of you were in Weiss together… was the relationship between you all always so… complicated?"  he asked Omi.

"You have no idea."

When Omi and Michel stepped inside after Aya, one could clearly hear Ken yelling once again, only this time his anger seemed directed at someone else.  "What do you mean I can't see him?!"  A quick glance revealed that is was Mihirogi that he was tearing into verbally this time as she stood at the base of the stairs.

The woman wasn't at all phased by his outburst, though.  "I meant exactly what I said.  Kudou-san was quite clear when he told me that he didn't want to see any of you and that he wanted to be alone with his daughter."  She turned to look at Omi.  "Takatori-san…  I believe that Kudou-san is suspicious of you and your connection to him.  Once he decides that he wants to talk to you all again, you and the others have to tell him the truth about his past."

"No," Aya interjected, walking up to place a hand on Ken's shoulder, silently willing him to calm down.  "Youji Kudou, _Balinese_, died two years ago.  The man we brought here today is married and has a daughter and a life without any blood on his hands or deaths weighing down his soul.  He got lucky and the fates let him start over again with a clean slate.  I won't allow that to be taken away from him just because he's too curious for his own damn good, or because we all miss him."

There was a choked sob and everyone turned around to face Omi, who had shut his eyes and was shaking his head, a mournful expression on his face.  "It's too late, Aya-kun," he whispered as he scrubbed away barely shed tears from his eyes with the back of his hand.  "It's already been taken away from him.  That's how Youji ended up here in the first place.  His wife was murdered and whoever killed her is after Kaiya and him now."

Aya and Ken stared at the grieving young man in shock.  Forgetting his anger with Omi, Ken moved to put his arms around his friend.  "Hey now, it's alright.  We're all here now, and we'll make sure that whoever did this will pay."  

Even though the words were a comfort, the grief the chibi felt in his heart for the two upstairs stabbed at his heart.  "Asuka didn't deserve to die the way she did… The way they killed her… The way Youji found her…"  Omi shuddered, screwing his eyes shut as he buried his face into Ken's chest.  

The two elder members of Weiss looked at Omi with great concern.  They had all been around death in most of its gruesome forms, and in some shape and form had managed to desensitize themselves to an extent to the often nightmarish scenes they would encounter on their missions.  Despite the fact that the youngest Weiss was the most sensitive of the four of them and that Asuka had probably become a close friend to him as well as Youji back in Japan, the former Bombay should not be reacting as strongly as this.

Mihirogi disappeared for a moment during this exchange, but reappeared soon after, bearing a black folder in her hands.  She forced a stoic expression upon her face as she addressed Aya.  "This is the file that I will be handing out to everyone for the mission briefing tonight, and yes the next mission will concern your friend and his daughter upstairs.  However, it's best that you understand what has happened first, considering how close you are with the victim's family."  She handed the folder to Aya, who gazed at it gravely.  "Inside are the current reports of the police investigation  concerning the death of Asuka Ikeda, as well as images from the crime scene and what little both Kritiker and Kryptonbrand have been able to dig up both in Japan and in Europe."

Releasing Omi, Ken and Michel walked up to look at the file with Aya.  Out of the corner of his eye, Ken noticed that Omi made no move to join them.  He stood there, stock still, his eyes closed and his head turned away so that he was not even looking in the general direction of the others.  By the expression on his face, one could see that the former Bombay was thoroughly upset, but doing his best to keep his emotions in check.  Then the dark-haired Japanese man turned back as he heard Aya begin to undo the leather tie that held the folder closed.

His heart pounding like a jack hammer in his chest as he undid the tie, Aya took a deep breath and prepared to steel himself as he always did right before looking at images for a mission where the darkest, most disturbing violent aspects of death were involved.  He had seen more than his fair share of them in his time, and he believed himself almost completely desensitized to the nightmarish haunting nature of those pictures.

Then, he opened the folder.

And his beliefs were shattered completely.


	7. Cruelty

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 7)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R (see warnings)  
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Glühen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content 

**Notes:** completely random, but I learned today that "alt 225" creates the "ß" symbol in "weiß" and "alt 129" creates the "ü" in "Glühen" (but you have to use the numerical keypad on your keyboard).  Also, the reference to Farfarello's love interest is taken from the Schwarz "Dramatic Image" albums.  This happens between the OVAs and Glühen.  
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

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"Oh my God," Michel whispered in horrified disbelief as he backed away from Aya and the folder, his spring green eyes as large as saucers and both his hands brought up to cover his mouth.  Ken and Aya were still staring at the first picture before them, though the dark-haired Japanese man could feel the nausea washing over him, along with the prickling sensation of hot tears stinging at his eyes, unshed.

"Who?  Why?  This is too horrible…" Ken murmured under his breath.  Then, he tilted his head up slightly to look at his partner's expression, caught off-guard by what he saw.  "Aya?"

The slender red head's expression was as stoic as it usually was when looking at information from a mission folder.  His lips were set in a grim line, and the muscles of his jaw were tightened.  What broke from the usual image, though, were the slender man's amythest eyes.  Unblinking, they clearly reflected endless amounts of horror and pain at what they took in.  When he finally closed his eyes, he slowly closed the folder along with them, taking a few steps backward till the backs of his legs met up with the side of a nearby sofa, where he sat down upon one of the plush arms.  He held the black folder between his two hands, pressed together as if in prayer before his bowed head, eyes still shut tightly.  When Ken took a few cautious steps forward, he noticed that Aya's hands were trembling slightly, and that the lithe assassin/florist was taking deep, purposefully measured breaths.  

Finally, Aya took one last deep breath and opened his eyes to look at Mihirogi.  "When did this happen?"  

"The murder took place two weeks ago.  Forensics in the Tokyo police department finally released Asuka's body four days ago, and the funeral occurred early yesterday afternoon."

"Jeeze," Ken muttered, taking a seat beside Aya on the sofa properly, running his fingers through his hair.  "It can't be even twenty-four hours since then…"

Omi's voice then took Mihirogi's place.  "Youji and Kaiya were supposed to follow me after the funeral.  I was planning on sheltering them at Tsukiyono Castle until Weiß found and took care of whoever had killed Asuka."  The young man's voice was strange to listen to for Aya and Ken.  It was serious, full of authority, and not Omi.  When he mentioned "Weiß" both of them turned to look at him, melancholy in their gaze.  Suddenly standing before them was not their Omi, or even Bombay, but Mamoru Takatori… Persia… the shadowed commander of a Weiß that did not include them.  If the now authoritative young man noticed the slightly pained looks upon his former teammates' faces, he had become adept enough in his persona as a Takatori and Persia to keep from reflecting that pain in his own eyes.  "Persia" continued with his commentary.

"However, after the funeral, several things happened at once.  Youji's car, which had been trailing my own as we left the cemetary, suddenly veered off course.  I tried to call him on his cell, but he didn't answer, and my driver would not allow me to follow after him.  Weiß tried to follow him in their own vehicle, which was trailing behind his, but they were intercepted."

"Intercepted?"  Ken questioned.

"They were cut off by a two vehicles, from which four people, two men and two women came out and engaged them in open combat in broad daylight.  When Weiß fought with them, their attackers were using abilities very similar to those used by Schwarz.  They barely made it out of the conflict alive.  It seemed, though, that the purpose of the attack was not to take them out, but to simply make them lose track of Youji and Kaiya."

Aya's amythest eyes narrowed dangerously.  "Schwarz… Are they the ones after Youji and his daughter?"

Persia shook his head.  "We don't know anything for certain now.  Up until this point, all signs had pointed to Estet being completely obliterated.  As for Schwarz, Nagi Naoe has been working for Kritiker for the past couple of years now, and Farfarello's God only knows where with this woman named Sally that Nagi swears that he is in love with and protecting…" 

Ken stared at Persia incredulously, and even Aya quirked an eyebrow at that revelation.

"…As for Schuldig and Crawford, their current whereabouts are unknown, though not for lack of investigation.  I wish I could say that it was safe to assume that the two had died in the explosion that did in Koua Academy.  However, if Youji could survive that blast…" He let his words trail off, letting the others draw their own conclusions to the obvious.

Persia had walked over to the windows on the wall opposite the sofa and stared out at the garden beyond it.  "This whole situation makes me uneasy.  No one at Kritiker has been able to confirm or deny if Youji's being targeted because of his past with Weiß or if it's all just a fucked up coincidence.  And the appearance of this new group of men and women with superhuman abilities seemingly out of thin air makes things all the more complicated." He sighed and turned to look back at Aya and Ken, a weariness in his features that made him seem so much older and more mature now than he truly was.  If one didn't know better, in that instance it could almost appear that the young man before them was as old, if not a bit older, than his former teammates.  "You can't imagine how relieved I was when Mihirogi told me that he and his daughter were with you and safe."  In that moment "Persia" slipped away and "Omi" stood before them once more, albeit a quite sad and subdued one.  

"How touching."

Several pairs of startled eyes turned to the stairs behind Mihirogi.  Dressed in a pair of khaki slacks and a black turtleneck, Youji was gazing at the lot of them as he leaned heavily against the banister of the winding staircase.  His daughter nowhere in sight, he wore a cold neutral expression on his face, betraying no outward expression, which in itself was a slightly unsettling thing.

"How long have you been here, Kudou-san?"  the dark-haired woman asked, to which the tall blonde merely gave a casual shrug to his shoulders before pushing himself up to stand fully.

"Long enough."  Youji walked down the stairs, his limp slight, but noticable.  "I want answers and I want them now."  His now clearly steely emerald gaze flickered to each person present there, though it lingered long and hard on Omi before he came to a stop in front of Aya.  "Who the hell am I?  And for that matter, who the fuck are all of you?!" 

Omi flinched at the pointed accusing glare that Youji sent his way, though Ken was the one to speak up first.  "Youji, don't take things out on Omi like that.  He was just trying to protect you.  We all were--"

"Protect me?!"  Youji practically spat out the words with a bitter laugh. "Oh sure, all this cloak and dagger bullshit was to protect me."  An equally bitter smile played on his lips as he closed his eyes for a moment.  "Mamoru… or what did he call you?  Omi?  Just what the fuck is your name anyways?!  Who the hell are you?!"  His eyes snapped open to glare at the young man with hurt and betrayal within the deep green orbs.  "Was our whole friendship the past year and a half just some lie you cooked up so that you would have a reason to babysit me and keep me out of trouble if my memories returned?"

"Y-Youji-kun…"  Omi's blue eyes were wide and wounded as he tried to talk to Youji.

"Kudou, calm down!"  Aya's rich voice commanded as he stood up himself.  The older blonde then turned to glare at the redhead, his anger with Omi momentarily distracted.  

"And you!  Who the fuck do you think you are?!  Since we ran into each other all you've been is orders and avoidance, despite the fact that you said we were once friends.  Oh, and before I forget…"  In a sudden quick motion, Youji whirled about on Aya, backhanded the black folder out of his hands, and connected his clenched fist into the the redhead's jaw, knocking him solidly to the ground.

"Mother of God!"

Michel's sharp exclamation cut through the air.  When the others looked at him, they found the young man staring wide eyed and ill-looking at the photos and papers now scattered all over the floor at his feet.  When Youji had knocked the folder out of Aya's hands, it had scattered its contents upon impact with the young Irishman.  Now, with all the photos scattered over the floor, the horror that the men had seen earlier was now multiplied several times over, as the first picture they had seen was the least disturbing of them all.

There was blood.  So much blood everywhere.  It bathed the floors and stained the walls in long streaks and splatters.  Flowers, furniture, even framed photographs of the happier moments of the young couple were defiled by the crimson humour.  That much was evident in the first picture Aya, Ken, and Michel had viewed.  What was now shown in more horrifying detail, however, was the state of Asuka Ikeda's body. 

The initial photograph of the crime scene had shown the young woman's body scattered haphazardly around the room, completely dismembered.  Adding to the brutality of the image was the fact that she had not been cut or slashed apart so much as ripped apart piece by piece, bone joints with torn mucles, clothing, and other shreded bodily fibers clearly visible against the backdrop of blood-stained carpeting and flora.  In other pictures that the men had not viewed, closeups of the brutality showed even more gruesome details.  Upon the woman's limbs and torso were jagged gashes that had been inflicted before her dismemberment.  There was also graphic evidence that she was raped as well.  Finally, there was a close up picture of the young woman's head, features barely recognizable as where her eyes had been were now gaping empty sockets, and a strange archaic looking symbol had been burned into her left cheek.

"Youji-kun?"  Omi's tenative voice brought Aya and Ken out of the horrified trances they had fallen into upon seeing the more graphic details of Asuka's murder.  Then tore their gazes away from the pictures to look at Youji.

The tall blonde stood there absolutely shell-shocked.  All the previous anger and frustration that had been directed at the others had been bled away the instant he saw those pictures, leaving behind a stunned distant expression, though his eyes went from photo to photo, silently processing the gore-filled details.  

"N-No… Asuka…"  His voice was barely a whisper as his eyes began to fill with tears, staring at the pictures, but obviously seeing something else.  "Oh God… No!" Youji began to back away slowly from the photos, his voice becoming louder and more grief-stricken as he brought his hands up to clench at the sides of his head, shaking in denial.  "It can't be her!  It's not her!  No!  That is not my Asuka!  My Asuka's not dead!  She's not!  She's not!"  

As Youji ranted, Mihirogi hurried over to Michel's side and began to gather up the pictures and slide them into the folder.  "Michel?" she started, looking up at the young man with sudden concern as he stood there, seemingly frozen to the floor and looking quite ill as he stared at the older blonde man with tears coursing down his cheeks. She put her hand on the younger blonde's shoulder, snapping him out of his daze long enough to murmur something to him that had him nodding and hurrying down the hall.

Though Omi moved to reach Youji's side as the grieving man sank to his knees, it was Aya who go to him first.  "Kudou!" the redhead grabbed at his former partner by the shoulders, trying to force him to look at him.  "Youji, look at me!"

Youji shook his head, choking down a sob that threatened to wrack his entire body.  "You're wrong!  My wife isn't dead.  That is not my wife!  Where is she?  What have you done with her?!  Where have you taken Asuka?!"  His emerald eyes snapped open, wide and wild, stared straight into Aya's startled violet ones as he grabbed desperately by his shirt.  

Ken made a move to break the two apart, but Omi held him back just as a resounding smack echoed through the room.  Aya had pushed Youji back and slapped him hard across the face, leaving an angry red handprint on the blonde's tanned cheek.  Youji's eyes lost that wild look as he turned to stare at Aya, as if seeing him properly for the first time.  Aya kept his stern steady gaze locked with Youji's and shook his head silently.  Realization dawning upon him slowly through his grief-induced episode, tears whelled up within those dark green orbs, spilling over as he closed his eyes mournfully.  Bowing his head as a broken sob finally wracked through his body, Youji ended up pressing his forehead lightly against Aya's chest.  His own amythest gaze finally softening to reflect some of the grief that he himself felt for his friend's pain, Aya lowered his eyes and tenatively eased his own arms about Youji, pulling him closer as the heartwrenching sobs shook through the taller man's slender frame.  Close by, holding Omi as the younger man cried silently into his chest, Ken's own head was bowed as the four of them shared in the grief of the one who, for a short moment time, had been given a cruel brief taste of a happiness and life beyond the darkness of their blood-stained pasts.


	8. Waking

**Title** – Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 8)  
**Author** - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
**Rating** – R (see warnings)  
**Pairing(s)** - Pairing yet to be specified   
**Warning(s)** – Glühen spoilers;  strong language;  graphic violence;  disturbing content 

**Notes:**   
**Status of fanfic** – ongoing

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Youji!  Wait up!"  A beautiful young woman rushes up to the tall blonde, little girl in her arms and a large bag hanging off her shoulder, just as he is about to head out the door.  Youji smiles affectionately, his entire face lighting up at the sight of the two greatest loves in his life.

_"Asuka," he manages to get out just as his wife stands up on her toes, stretching elegantly so that she can capture her husband's lips.  They linger there for a moment in the sunshine flooding the room, until the child trapped between them begins to fuss at the lack of attention to herself.  Breaking off the kiss, Youji chuckles and gathers his daughter up in his own arms.  "Don't think we could ever forget about you, Kaiya-chan.  We both know that you are the absolute center of our universe."_

_Asuka smiles at the scene before her for a bit, but then her expression changes as she seemed to remember why she was rushing to catch her husband before he left.  "Darling, I need to ask you a huge favor."  
  
_

_"Yes?"_

_"Could you take Kaiya with you to work today?"_

_"I thought that you had the day off today…"_

_"The hospital just called and really need me to cover a nurse who's called in sick, and Kaiya's sitter is off visiting relatives today."_

_Youji smiled at Asuka.  "I don't think that should be too much of a problem.  I'm leaving work early today anyways to have lunch with Mamoru, and it's been a while since he's seen Kaiya."  Then he turned to tickle his daughter a bit.  "So what do you say, Kaiya-chan?  Do you wanna come to work with Papa and distract everyone at his office, and then get spoiled completely rotten by your Uncle Mamoru?"  The little girl squealed with delighted giggles while her father laughed.  "I guess I'll take that as a yes."_

_While he had been conversing with his daughter, Asuka got out the stroller and placed the bag with various baby supplies within it before taking Kaiya from Youji's arms and getting her strapped into it.  "Be good for your Papa now, Kaiya-chan.  Don't let him use you to get out of too much work today.  Love you little angel," she said with a smile as she bent down to kiss her daughter.  Then she turned and gave her husband, wrapped her arms about the taller man's neck, and gave him a long, lingering kiss that left both of them a quite breathless.  "I love you, Youji.  You take care of yourself and our little girl, ok?"_

_A bit light-headed from their last kiss, Youji nodded as he stroked his wife's soft cheek tenderly.  "Always," he murmured softly as he took a hold of the stroller and began to head out the door.  "Love you too, sweetheart.  Have a good day at the hospital."_

_And then Youji and Kaiya walked out into the bright light of the day, away from Asuka who stood there in the doorway, watching them walk farther and farther away from her…_

~*~

Dark jade coloured eyes slowly opened, staring blearily at nothing in particular for a few long moments.  Then, a long arm reached out across the bed, tenatively examining by touch the side of the bed that would normally have been claimed by another familiar warm, inviting body.  The sheets on that side were cold, and it was evident that no one had slept there at all.  Youji pushed himself up on his arms and looked about, his brows furrowed as he took in the unfamiliar surroundings.  

"Asuka?" he murmured, trying to find something that looked familiar.  He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair and down to rub the back of his neck, which felt very stiff and sore.  In fact, his entire body felt like one big bruise, and he bit back a groan as he moved.  Then, his fingers caught hold of an unfamiliar thin chain resting at the base of his neck.  Confused, Youji caught hold of the chain and lifted it free of the turtleneck he was wearing.  There, hanging from the chain in the middle of his chest, rested a small delicate gold wedding band that was a perfect match for the slightly larger one that rested upon his own left hand.

Then Youji remembered.  

Asuka was dead, buried just the day before.  He and Kaiya were alone in England now.  No… Strike that.  They weren't alone.  They were with people who said that they were his friends from before he got amnesia.  And a part of him truly believed them when they told him that.  However, that same part was also telling him that they were keeping something from him.  Something very important.  But just before he was able to fully confront them and get the answers he wanted, some folder full of crime scene photos of Asuka's death spilled open and he lost it.  Youji blearily remembered breaking down completely, but feeling some comfort in the three men who gathered around him when he did so.  Vaguely he recalled being handed some pills by the younger blonde boy, Michel as well as a glass of water.  

_"Must have been a sedative,"_ he thought to himself.  After taking the pills without too much protest, the tall blonde couldn't really remember too much after that.  Blearily he recalled being helped back up the stairs by Aya and Ken, with Mamoru… Omi… trailing close behind saying something he couldn't really remember.  _"Wonder how long I've been out."  _He tried to get to his feet, and soon found the world shifting unpleasantly, discomfort compounded by the soreness in his sprained ankle.  However, despite the pain and spinning room, Youji moved gingerly over to crib and check on his sleeping daughter.  

_"Agnes must have put her to down while I slept.  At least, Kaiya seems to like that old lady,"_ Youji mused as he replaced the blanket that the infant had kicked off in her sleep.  When he had left her with Agnes to go downstairs to confront the others, she was happily playing pat-a-cake with the grandmotherly woman.  Sighing, he shifted himself backwards a bit and turned an eye towards the closed door to the hallway and the rest of the world beyond himself and his daughter.  

He wanted answers.  He wanted answers so badly that it hurt.  

However, instead of storming downstairs once more and tracking down the people who held the answers he sought, Youji made his way back to the bed and burrowed himself down into the covers.  As much as he ached for the knowledge of his forgotten past, the knowledge of his recent present was too much for his heart to bear at the moment.

_"I can't face the rest of the world right now,"_ he thought as he buried his face into his pillow, willingly collecting the remainders of his earlier drug-induced unconsciousness about him like the comforter that he had curled up under.  Without much trouble, he began to slip into the blissful abyss of a hopefully dreamless unconsciousness.

_"Asuka… Why did they have to take you away from me now?"_


	9. Hipocracy explained

Title - Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 9)  
Author - HourglassThorne, hourglassthorne@yahoo.com   
Rating - R (see warnings)   
Pairing(s) - Pairing yet to be specified   
Warning(s) - Glühen spoilers; strong language; graphic violence; disturbing content   
Notes: Apologies for taking so long to get this chapter out. I hate the way my brain works sometimes... I have these nice little plot twists for two or three chapters down the line, but my brain gives me nothing to work with for the chapters inbetween. And thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to give me such nice reviews. I'd still write even if I didn't get them, but you all certainly make it more worthwhile to get each new chapters typed up. Thank you!  
Status of fanfic - ongoing  
  
  


* * *

  
  
Soon after depositing Youji back in his room, the other three members of Weiß found themselves settled in the study by themselves, the ominous black folder sitting on a small end table situated between the three of them. Aya stood leaning on the wall beside the fireplace, his eyes closed in silent contemplation while Ken sat in one of the plush armchairs, glaring at the thing as if it were a viper readying itself to bite him. Omi was over by the wetbar, quietly pouring himself a glass of brandy, to which the tall redhead finally raised his eyes to study the youngest of them seriously.   
  
"Isn't it a bit early for that?" he questioned calmly, not really accusing or berating, but definitely a bit concerned by what he was seeing. Ken, finally tearing his gaze away from the accursed folder, looked up and was quite startled by the image before him.   
  
"What the?! When the hell did you start drinking?"   
  
"The day that Asuka died." Omi stared at the amber-coloured liquid in his glass. Then he sighed, took a long draught of the alcohol as it burned its way down his throat, and then took a seat in the armchair opposite Ken's. "I was there with Youji when he found his wife."   
  
The young man raised his hand to silence Ken before he got a chance to interrupt, then settled back into his seat, staring at the glass in his hands. "Youji and I have been friends since about six months after his release from the hospital. I'm sorry about how you feel about it Ken, and I know it wasn't fair to either you or Aya, but believe me when I say that I had no intention of any of this happening the way it did. We met at a fundraiser being held for the hospital that he had recovered in. A lot of the staff and their families had been invited to the banquet and Youji and Asuka, newly engaged, were there. He approached me, not even knowing who I was at the time, and just started talking to me. I had tried to avoid him for most of the night, but eventually I couldn't run any more.   
  
"It was so hard. There he was, talking to me as a total stranger, but at the same time his voice and expressions were just like they were before... Before we lost him to Neu and the ghost of the first Asuka... Before when we were all happy..."   
  
Omi absentmindedly swirled the brandy in his glass. "And he was lonely. Sure he had his fiancee, and he knew people at his office job, but they weren't really friends and he was unhappy about that. And that unhappiness was making him more determined to find out about his lost memories and his past." He paused and took another sip. "Then I decided to become Youji's friend so that I could steer him away from looking for his past with us.   
  
"I know it sounds like a pretty lame excuse, and I know a big part of me did it cause I was selfish and missed him and was so tired of being alone myself, but I..."   
  
"You don't have to apologize any more, Omi." Ken's voice cut through the younger man's soft voice. The dark haired Japanese man had come across and was kneeling before him attempting to catch the smaller blonde's eyes. "I was upset before, but I know you did what you thought was right. I really had no place to rip into you like that. When Weiß split up that last time, at least I have Aya here, not to mention every other member of Kryptonbrand now. And while Youji was alone, he didn't have any memories of us. But you... "   
  
"You had to take on so much by yourself." Aya picked up Ken's train of thought and began to speak himself. "Kritiker... Mamoru Takatori... Persia... And on top of all of that and being alone, you had the memories of Omi Tsukiyono to haunt your dreams, just like the memories of Ran Fujiyama haunt mine. Neither of us blame you for what you did."   
  
Omi looked up, first at Ken, then at Aya. His soft blue eyes were so full of sorrow, it hurt to see him like that with the weight of the world on his shoulders. It didn't seem right or natural. But he took comfort in the fact that his friends were there with him now, that he wasn't alone for that moment in time, and he allowed himself a small smile, nodded, and then continued his story.   
  
"It wasn't hard for Youji and I to become friends. He was surprised, however, when he learned that I was the head of the Takatori Corporation. However, it didn't affect how he thought of me. The only difference now was that he was calling me 'Mamoru' instead of 'Omitchi'. Though he wasn't lonely anymore, he was still looking for his past, so I had promised to 'help' him. Of course I kept giving him false leads that always led to dead ends. But he never suspected me of sabatoging his search.   
  
"Then, when Asuka found out she was pregnant, I didn't even have to do that anymore. All the curiosity about his past went out the window with Kaiya's birth. When that little girl became the center of his universe, he turned his full focus on his family and never looked back. Youji made me Kaiya's godfather, and for the next nine months or so everything was fine. Youji and his family were happy. You all were happy (or at least it seemed like it from the reports I got every now and again from Mihirogi). And I was happy. Business and life went along as usual."   
  
Omi's face became pained as he closed his eyes and knocked back the last of the brandy in his glass with one swift motion. He coughed a bit afterwards, but waved off Ken as he tried to pat him on the back. He took a deep breath and regained his composure.   
  
"About two weeks ago, Youji and I met for a late lunch. He had gotten out of work early and had Kaiya with him. He told me that Asuka had gotten called into work at the last minute and their usual sitter was out of town. So we had lunch and took the little girl out to the zoo for the afternoon. After Kaiya had fallen asleep in her stroller, we made our way back to his home with Asuka. Something didn't feel right. Both of us could feel it. There was the smell of blood in the air. Youji told me to take Kaiya down to one of their neighbors while he went to check things out. I didn't want to leave him alone, but whatever was going on, I didn't want Kaiya in danger either. So I dropped her off and rushed back to Youji.   
  
"The door was open wide when I got to their apartment. The smell of blood was so thick in the air it was almost suffocating. Then I found Youji and Asuka..." Omi's voice trailed off as the sorrow and pain returned to his eyes, reliving the memory in his mind, striving hard to keep himself from breaking down completely. He took a deep breath and continued. "Youji was kneeling there in the blood, staring at his wife's face, completely catatonic. I tried to get him out of the room, but he wouldn't move. He was absolutely devastated. It wasn't until I told him that Kaiya was still waiting for him that he finally snapped out of it long enough for me to get him away from there and back to their neighbor's so that I could call the police."   
  
Omi brought his glass up to his lips halfway before noticing that it was empty. He set it back down with a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair, blinking back the tears that were threatening to spill. "The moment I had some time alone, after taking Youji and Kaiya to my condo to rest, I had Rex and Crashers working overtime to find out who it was that killed Asuka, so that I could send Weiß to take care of them. However, they ended up having about as much luck as the police. This in itself was strange, and I didn't want to keep Youji and his daughter in the city. I felt that they would be safer up at my grandfather's castle, so I made arrangements so that after Asuka's funeral we would transport them there until we could find the people responsible... And you already know the rest."   
  
The silence in the room was deafening, but it allowed time for the youngest of them to calm his jagged nerves. For a long time, no one said anything. Then Ken finally broke the silence.   
  
"What now?"   
  
The younger blond man frowned, closed his eyes, then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an all too familiar object which he placed atop the black folder. Ken's brown eyes grew big and round and then narrowed dangerously as he leapt up to his feet.   
  
"NO! We cannot do that! Sure he had a tragedy happen, a horrible tragedy, and if anyone deserves vengence, then it would most definitely be him! But this isn't like it was when he lost the first Asuka. That Asuka didn't leave him with an infant daughter! He's a father now! We can't bring him back into this life! It nearly destroyed him last time... Hell! It DID destroy him!"   
  
"Unfortunately, this situation does not allow us the luxury of a choice in this particular matter," Aya's hand came down on Omi's shoulder and he stood beside the still seated young man, a resigned look in his eyes as he lifted up Youji's mission watch from the folder. "Whoever these people are who are hunting Youji and his daughter, they are ruthless, cunning, and might have powers similar or equal to Schwarz. They want Kaiya and will do anything in their power to get her, killing anyone who gets in their way. We all want Youji to be happy. We also know what being in Weiß did to him towards the end.   
  
"However, if worse comes to worse, and we find ourselves in a situation where Youji has to protect Kaiya on his own, we all know that he would have a better chance of doing so successfully as the person he was then, than the person he is now."   
  
Ken glared at the watch which contained Youji's wire. "Kuso!" he growled as he whirled about and savagely kicked a nearby ottoman, sending it tumbling across the room. Then the fight went out of him and he calmed down, his fists unclenching and a sad expression in his flashing eyes. "So when do we tell him?"   
  
"Tonight... When he is awake and Kaiya is down for the evening. That way we have the entire night almost guaranteed to be uninterupted."   
  
"Are you sure about that Omi?"   
  
The shorter man nodded. "Yeah. Unless Kaiya's sick or teething badly, she can sleep through the night now with no problems. Fortunately, being so young, the death of her mother hasn't affected her as bad as it might have if she had been a bit older." His eyes traveled upwards slightly, as if trying to gaze through the ceiling at the next floor up. "I wonder if she's awake up there."   
  
Aya gazed at him quizzically. "She's a baby. Won't she make it perfectly clear to everyone in the castle if she is awake or not?"   
  
The younger man smiled fondly and shook his head. "Actually, she can be a really quite child when she wants to be. Sometimes, she'll just sit in her crib once she wakes up and just play there all peacefully, unless she's hungry or needs to be changed." He closed his eyes briefly, then nodded as if he had made some internal decision. "I'm gonna go up and check on her." Omi stood up from his chair and began to make his way to the door.   
  
"Are you sure you should go in there while Youji's sleeping?" Ken asked tenatively.   
  
Omi stopped before the door. "As much as I know he probably doesn't want anything to do with me right now, I don't really want for him to wake up alone when he eventually does. Plus, there's Kaiya there. If she's asleep, then all's good. If she's awake, then I can help take care of her and keep her from waking up father. As strong as those pills Michel gave him are sure to be, if she wakes up and is fussy, he'll be up too, and he needs his rest." He looked back at the other two. "Come up with me?"   
  
Ken smiled broadly and nodded. Aya, on the other hand, looked a little unsure.   
  
"Maybe I'll see her later. I should go and check how Michel is doing. He didn't look too well after seeing all those pictures."   
  
"Alright Aya-kun. We'll find you later."   
  
So Ken and Omi headed out of the study and up the stairs to the second floor, while Aya lingered for a long moment, fingering Youji's mission watch in his hand, a solemn expression on his face. 


	10. In the presence of the child

Title - Price of Forgiveness (Chpt 10)  
Author - HourglassThorne  
Rating - R (see warnings)   
Pairing(s) - Pairing yet to be specified   
Warning(s) - Glühen spoilers; strong language; graphic violence; disturbing content   
Notes: My apologies once more for the extended lengthy time it took for me to get this one up. My muses have finally decided to stop being on strike, and now I know where I want to go with this. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this story of mine.  
Status of fanfic - ongoing  
  
  


* * *

  
  
There was a faint knocking at the door. "Youji-kun?" a tenative voice softly spoke from behind the closed door before it opened just a crack. Cautiously, Omi crept into the room, pausing once he was fully within it to allow his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting . Ken poked his head in afterwards, making sure that the door didn't open any farther than necessary and let in too much light.   
  
"Youji? Are you asleep?" the dark haired Japanese man whispered gingerly.   
  
Omi shot him a look. "Thank you Mister Obvious," he whispered back, rolling his eyes while a corner of Ken's lips curled up in a small grin as he shrugged.   
  
Though there was no movement from the curled up form on the large bed against the far wall of the room, something definitely stirred from within the crib that was bumped up on the side wall next to the door. The two men turned their heads to the small infant standing up in her crib, holding onto the railing, staring at them wide-eyed with her luminous emerald eyes.   
  
The younger Wei's face lit up completely when the baby, upon recognizing the man looking at her, broke out into a huge grin and bounced up and down before losing her grip and balance and sitting back down with a bump. "Kaiya-chan!" he crooned, still keeping his voice low. The little girl giggled, which brought a stir from the lump on the bed. Both men froze, Ken in mid-entry into the room, until the movement settled and was motionless once more. They both released the breaths that they absentmindly had been holding. "Shhh, Kaiya-chan. We don't want to wake up your papa now, do we?" Omi moved to the crib and lifted her up, hugging her gently while the small child clung to him like a little spider monkey. Eventually, though, he moved to the changing table and quickly began to change her while Ken watched on in a sort of awe.   
  
"Looks like you've had a lot of practice at that." He came up and stood looked down on Kaiya, who paused in her attempts to roll over and stared at Ken curiously.   
  
Omi shrugged. "When I wasn't hung up on business, I'd spend all my free time with Youji and his family. They were the closest things to it that I had over there once you guys left." He smiled a bit sadly, though he shook off the feeling as best he could. Somehow, entertaining sadness and grief when around the small child didn't seem right, if not an outright crime. Once done, he lifted her up and held her against his chest. "Grab that blanket there," he motioned to the crib. "And the bear too. Is there somewhere here where we can let her crawl around and play?"   
  
Ken looked about for a moment before zeroing in on a door next to the bed. "Over there. There's a living room connected to this one." He grabbed the things from the crib and led the younger man to the door, trying to move all the more stealthily as they passed by Youji's bed. Once reassured that the young child's father was still sound asleep, they quietly opened the door and slipped into the next room.   
  
The moment the door was silently closed behind them, however, the lanky figure on the bed turned over to look at it with a curious expression on his face. Swinging legs off the side of the bed, Youji gingerly made his way to the door and with practiced ease silently opened it just enough for him to listen in to the sounds within.   
  
Unknowing of their secretive audience, Omi whirled Kaiya around in his arms as she squealed with delight at the movement, Ken laughing at the happy sight. "She certainly is a keeper when she's not screaming her lungs out," he commented light-heartedly.   
  
"Kaiya-chan's one in a million." Omi beamed as he looked about the room. It was a small room, but comfortably furnished. There wasn't a television or computer to be found, but there was a black grand piano as well as a top of the line stereo system with a collection of cds on the shelf behind it. Taking up the rest of the bookshelves were volumes upon volumes of literature. Complete with a fireplace in the corner and several leather armchairs, as well as a comfortable looking sofa, this room was the perfect hideaway for those of less active and more studious relaxation. "Lemme guess... Aya spends alot of his free time up here, doesn't he?"   
  
Ken shrugged. "If the weather's lousy, he does. Actually, when he's relaxing, he has a garden out back he works on. Even has a greenhouse all to himself." He laughed. "You should have seen the face on the regular gardener when Aya decided to claim it as his own. I swear that old codger looked mad enough to chew nails when Aya kicked him out and told him it was off-limits. Not sure why, but he's gotten quite possessive of it. Though we do have apartments in London above the flower shop, we come back here every now and again to unwind or to train."   
  
The younger man smiled and shook his head. "The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh Ken-kun?" He set an almost furiously squirming Kaiya down on the floor gently.   
  
The other one stared at Omi blankly, then laughed. "I guess you're right. Never thought much about it." Suddenly, Ken felt a tugging at his jeans. Looking down, he was a bit startled to see that Youji's young daughter had crawled over and was trying to pull herself up against his legs. "Wow! She's not shy or scared of me at all, is she?" He could feel his heart warm from the inside out as she flashed him with a winsome smile, her three bottom pearls of teeth shining in the bed of pink gums.   
  
Omi took the blanket from Ken. "Watch this. She loves this. Hey Kaiya-chan! Look what Uncle Mamoru's got." When the little girl turned around to face the younger man, he flipped the blanket out so that it landed lightly on her head, covering her face. The babe squealed brightly with absolute delight as she waved her arms under the blanket, sat down with a bump on the floor when she lost her balance, and eventually tugging the soft pastel cloth quickly from her face, still laughing that infectious little baby giggle. Both Ken and Omi joined in, their light-hearted laughter filling the room. As Omi flipped the blanket over her head a second time, though, Ken gave him a slightly pained look.   
  
"Must have been hard... Having Youji call you 'Mamoru' this entire time, hasn't it?"   
  
"It was... at first. I still hate the Takatori name and everything it's connected with. However, coming from him didn't seem so bad. With him, 'Mamoru' was just my name and not a stigma." He sighed. "Even though, when we first became friends, there were several times that I completely spaced out and didn't answer him when he called me by that name. It was so unfamiliar attached to his voice. I guess my mind kept wanting and waiting for him to call me 'Omitchi'." He chuckled fondly. "I never would have imagined that I'd ever long to hear that annoying nickname ever again."   
  
"Yeah. Y'know when he showed up at the Kitten's House, after he and Aya lost those thugs who were after him, one of the first things that he remembered were our goofy nicknames too. Of course I had to remind him of his own one."   
  
"Of course."   
  
The two young men shared a smile between them and turned their attention back to entertaining the small child, all three of them delighting their improptu game of peek-a-boo. After a while they switched the game around for the baby girl, taking the bear they had swiped from her crib and setting it on the floor before draping the blanket over it, covering it completely. While watching the girl examine the bear-shaped lump carefully, they both sat next to each other on the floor, their backs against the sofa.   
  
"I never wanted to hurt any of you, y'know," Omi murmered softly. "Especially not Youji. All I wanted for him was a chance to live a life he always wanted... A life away from all 'this'." The young man made a sweeping gesture with his hand, to which Ken nodded with clear comprehension on his face.   
  
"I understand. Aya does too. And I'm sure that Youji will forgive you eventually, especially when he remembers all we've been through together." Ken put his arm about his former partner's shoulders comfortingly.   
  
Omi frowned though. "But even if we tell him everything tonight... Will he actually remember it? I remember when he was at the hospital and I talked to the doctors. They told me that even though he had suffered a lot of injuries, there was no physical damage to the brain to explain away his amnesia. Although considering everything he'd been through in those last few missions, especially after Neu, I guess the psychological trauma might have been enough to make him block things out." Despite the young man's words, his tone revealed that he wasn't completely convinced of that rationalization.   
  
Though he smiled at Kaiya as she pounced upon the teddy that she finally uncovered while tugging persistantly on the blanket, Ken nodded as he contemplated his old friend's words. "I still don't like the idea of bringing him back into this. That last mission almost killed him, and by the grace of some higher power he was not only allowed to live, but to have an actual honest-to-goodness life. I mean.. How many of us can really even dare to dream about something like that the way our lives are right now? Honestly?"   
  
The younger former Weiß couldn't meet Ken's questioning gaze, but the expression on his face spoke volumes.   
  
In the shadows of the bedroom, Youji sat there on the floor, his back against the wall and his ear next to the slight opening in the door. He listened intently, absorbing all that he heard with a stoic expression on his face that gradually melted into something more serene as the conversations between Ken and Omi continued. When they fell silent once more, save for the occassional giggles and babbling from his little girl, the tall blonde carefully got to his feet, stretched, and quietly entered the living room himself.   
  
So absorbed the other two were in their own thoughts while absentmindedly watching Kaiya that they didn't realize that they had a visitor until they saw the little girl suddenly move to her hands and knees and began crawling like mad away from them. They had both twisted around to go after the little girl but froze when they saw Youji kneeling down gingerly to gather up the little girl in his arms. Not wanting to endure a long awkward silent moment, Omi got up and walked up to the taller blonde contritely.   
  
"Youji-kun... I just... just wanted to say... that I'm sorry for everything. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted you to be happy, to be safe, to be-"   
  
"Y'know," Youji cut in gently, as he let Kaiya grab a hold of a lock of hair and tug on it playfully when he lifted her up. "I never felt comfortable calling you 'Mamoru.' For some reason I couldn't figure out, it didn't feel right, sound right. It was like the name didn't fit." He winced when the baby gave his hair a really hard pull and gently pried her tiny fingers apart to release it. Then he turned to give the younger man a small, weary smile. "Your name is Omi. That's what fits."   
  
He took Kaiya over to the piano and sat her on his lap as he used a free hand to walk his fingers along the keys, playing a simple C major scale. The child oohed and ahhed and clapped her hands together, which seemed to relax the tension in Youji's frame and drew some of the weariness from his eyes. As he let the tiny child reach over and experimentally tap out a few haphazard keys of her own, he turned his attention back to the other two.   
  
"I'm still not happy with being lied to and having secrets kept from me, but I'm too tired and don't have the energy to be mad right now." His haunted jade eyes, underscored by shadows from sleeplessness and grief, closed as he massaged the temple. "If it's not too much trouble, can't we please just forget all about all the lies and secrets and everything else... At least while we're here with Kaiya? Can't we just pretend, at least for a little while, that everything's ok between us?" He lifted his eyes and there was a heartfelt pleading within them. "I know I feel comfortable with you despite everything, and my daughter likes you both... You're the only people I feel safe around right now." Youji held his baby closer to him in his lap, drawing a curious look from her when she noticed he'd pulled her away from the piano keys.   
  
Omi and Ken looked at each other. Then they both smiled supportively at Youji.   
  
"What lies? What secrets? I don't know what Yotan's talking about. Do you, Omi?" Ken spoke up with a shake of his head.   
  
Omi bent down to retrieve the teddy bear from the floor. "Nope. Can't say that I do, Ken-kun."   
  
Youji stared at them both for a moment before his face finally relaxed enough for a genuine grateful smile to appear. He chuckled softly as Kaiya crooned and reached for the bear. "Kaiya-chan. Do you want to go to Uncle Omitchi and Uncle KenKen for a bit while I get you some juice from the other room?"   
  
The youngest of the former Weiß gave Youji a startled look, completely unprepared for the feeling of warmth at the sound of his old nickname coming from the eldest Wei's lips. He smiled back, genuinely happy, as he lifted Kaiya from her father's lap. Youji then tried to stand up, wincing as he tried to put weight on his injured ankle. Before he knew it, though, he found Ken at his side, helping him up.   
  
"Here, lemme help ya with that, Yotan. Y'know, Agnes will have my hide if I let ya make that ankle of yours worse."   
  
The tall blonde smirked at him. "Aww... The mighty Kenken cowed by a kindly old grandma?"   
  
Ken laughed as he walked with Youji to the bedroom where spare bottles had been left within. "'Kindly old grandma' my ass! She may be all nice and sweet when you're doing exactly what she wants, but the moment you step outta line with her, watch out. She's an evil, evil woman with a full set of kitchen cutlery at her disposal and a master key to nearly every room in this place." 


End file.
